Audio: Ivory Coast Soul II 1976-1982

Following an excellent first installment, Ivory Coast Soul is back with Afrofunk in Abidjan 1976-1981, a new collection of vintage horn-flanked tunes from the often musically-overlooked West African nation. The rare, and often unreleased, tracks were compiled by vinyl digger Djamel Hammadi aka Afrobrazilero — who overcame "fake policemen at border controls, political instabilities, deep economic crisis, malaria and one big fear when he opened a vinyl box in a small abandoned bus station and found a Scorpio" to dig up these sounds — and then licensed by DJ Julien Lebrun. Stream the entire release below and grab it now fromHot Casa Records.

The legendary South African writer on storytelling, losing Bra Hugh Masekela and his hopes for South Africa

Zakes Mda, endearingly referred to as Bra Zakes, is a South African literary giant. He is the exemplar "jack of all trades, master of all"—a professional 'dabbler' as he refers to it. An accomplished novelist, playwright, poet and painter, he has written close to two dozen novels thus far, including the beloved Little Suns, Ways of Dying and The Heart of Redness. He is extremely hilarious as an individual and never afraid to speak his glorious mind. Case in point:

"Some random guy claims he has lost all respect for me because I hold a different view from his on a specific issue. I'm trying hard to recall what his respect has done for me lately or ever did."